1716AU

I must say, Trump is lucky they didn't ask for a search warrant and take him in a room to take picture of his penis.

When your whole defense is that she is making it up, you might want to prove her credibility.

Unfortunately, the Prosecution has the Jury eating out of its hand right now. No matter what, they have lost the jury.

John Heisman

I hate to break your hearts, but Stormy Daniels sunk him today.

Put a fork in him.  He is done.

On 5/2/2024 at 12:19 AM, Cardin Drake said:

Nice straight forward explanation of why Bragg's case is ridiculous:

https://thelibertydaily.com/trumps-hush-money-prosecution-is-bogus-case-bogus/

Here’s a quick tutorial on why Bragg doesn’t have a legal leg to stand on—call it “Federal Campaign Finance Law for Dummies 101”—an apropos title, given what’s going on.

Daniels claims that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, fully 10 years before the 2016 presidential election, which Trump denies. For the payment, Daniels agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which is a standard provision in many settlement agreements of personal injury cases and other claims.

Bragg contends that Trump falsified business records, a misdemeanor, when this payment was listed as legal expenses instead of a campaign expense.

Supposedly, according to Bragg, that converted the misdemeanors into felonies because Trump was concealing another crime. That other crime, according to prosecutors, is a violation of Section 17-152 of New York law, which make it a misdemeanor to “promote … the election of any person to public office by unlawful means.”

Besides the fact that it’s very strange to allege that the commission of a misdemeanor for the purpose of covering up the commission of another misdemeanor is enough to allege a felony, the only plausible theory that Bragg is pushing for the alleged “unlawful means” was a violation of federal law by concealing a campaign-related payment.

With me so far?

But Trump was running for president. The raising and spending of money for campaigns for president and Congress is governed by federal law, the Federal Election Campaign Act, not state law. Any wrongdoing related to federal campaign financing falls under the enforcement authority of federal officials, not a local prosecutor like Bragg.

In fact, the Federal Election Commission, on which I served as a commissioner, has civil enforcement authority and the U.S. Department of Justice has criminal enforcement authority over violations of this law.

For the nuisance-value settlement payment to Daniels to fit within Bragg’s rickety legal structure, it would have to be a crime under federal law. In other words, it would have to be considered a campaign-related expense that was falsely reported under the Federal Election Campaign Act.

If you want an example of such a violation, just look at the $113,000 civil penalty the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed to pay in 2022. They listed the payments for the opposition research that formed the basis for the infamous Steele dossier, which fabricated the entire Trump-Russia collusion hoax, as legal expenses instead of opposition research.

But opposition research on the opposing candidate is obviously a campaign-related expense under applicable federal law, so the FEC had authority to investigate and enforce the law against this deception.

That’s not the case with the Daniels’ payment. For starters, the incident in question that led to the payment is alleged to have happened 10 years before the 2016 campaign. More importantly, the payment fails the test the FEC applies to determine whether an expense is campaign-related.

Under federal law and corresponding regulations, the FEC applies the “irrespective test” to “differentiate legitimate campaign and officeholder expenses from personal expenses.” As the FEC explains on its website, under the irrespective test, “personal use is any use of funds … to fulfill a commitment, obligation, or expense of any person that would exist, irrespective of the candidates’ campaign.”

In other words, if the expense would exist even if the individual were not a candidate, then it’s personal and not a campaign expense.

The payment to Daniels clearly fails that test. Trump was a celebrity long before he ran for office, and celebrities get these kinds of nuisance claims all the time. In fact, the prosecution’s first witness in the New York case, David Pecker, said he had helped settle similar claims to avoid legal costs and embarrassment by suppressing stories for numerous other celebrities, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tiger Woods.

The easiest way to understand this test is to take the example of a personal injury claim.

Candidate A has a car accident several years before he runs for Congress that injures another driver. After the campaign has started, the candidate decides to settle the personal injury claim made by the other driver by paying that driver $130,000 in exchange for a nondisclosure agreement.

Settling and paying the claim may help the candidate in his campaign by avoiding personal embarrassment. But that doesn’t make it a campaign expense. It’s a claim that would exist even if the candidate were not running for office and is thus considered a personal expense under federal law.

Daniels’ claim is also a personal claim that existed long before Trump ran for the presidency and, given his celebrity status, would have continued to exist even if he never ran for president.

That’s no doubt why neither the FEC nor the Justice Department ever filed an enforcement action against the Trump campaign or Trump personally over the payment; specifically, because it was not a campaign-related expense.

You know what would have led to enforcement actions? If Trump had actually claimed this was a campaign-related expense and had used campaign funds to make the payment, I have no doubt he would have been prosecuted by the feds for the illegal use of campaign funds to pay a personal expense.

That’s what former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., went to prison for after he pleaded guilty in 2013 to spending $750,000 on personal expenses.

Keep in mind that Bragg’s entire manufactured case of 34 counts of falsifying business records depends entirely on the legitimacy of his contention that the settlement payment should have been listed as a campaign-related expense.

It shouldn’t because it wasn’t.

And all of the other testimony from the prosecution’s witnesses about this payment and other settlement payments that are obviously intended to blacken the character of the former president and prejudice the jury doesn’t change the fact that none of these payments were campaign-related expenses. Period. End of story—or at least it should be.

Hate to break your heart, because you're wrong, and the problem Trump has is that Bragg is kicking his butt, and Trump lost the jury last week.

Right now, the prison orange is looking pretty likely...

I really appreciate the opportunity to read everyone's opinions. And I appreciate them all.

That being said, the "Pro-Life" moniker, especially from the religious right is quite laughable to me.  They don't believe it.  At all. And their actions show it loudly.

Very much the same regarding evangelicals and their belief in Hell.

If they really believed in Life, they would do anything and everything they could to protect it.  But they don't. They pay lip service to it and use it as a tool to make themselves feel better, or to hold power over those that do not or cannot deal with these issues cognitively. 

There is the greatest hypocrisy in this WHOLE debate. Falwell and Schaffer got what they wanted...

25 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

Funny, but pictures of bombed hospitals with bleeding and dying children don't seem to get anyone's attention if there arent Jews around to blame.

 

Well, since they are the one dropping the bombs, unopposed, and killing non-combatants like, especially innocent children (15,000 last count), and bombing Christian Churches in Gaza, and are basically perpetuating an ethnic cleansing in Gaza and an Apartheid in the West Bank, well, maybe they do deserve a wee bit of blame.

Biggest problem that you have is how little you understand Judaism and how it affects the current Israeli government and their policies and actions.

On 4/25/2024 at 11:01 PM, TexasTiger said:

Some are, some aren’t. It’s not the primary driver of most protests.

Just an honest question: at whom do they direct their anti-semitism?  The Israelis or the Palestinians?

BOTH are semitic peoples.

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

How did Bama get this good?

They, unlike us, have an elite  coach.

And make NO mistakes.  Oates is elite.

You guys need to sack up. He just got his team to the final four. Our coach got us a one and done, again.

Oates has his issues, like every human being. But the one thing he is, is a superior coach. 

No matter how much you may not like it, the proof is in the pudding.

1 minute ago, I_M4_AU said:

What a s***ty thing to say.  You need to readjust your thinking or just go away.

I readjusted years ago to see folks like you as you are.

And it ain't pretty.

And I am going nowhere.  Get used to it.

13 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

I consider mutilating young children by amputating their perfectly normal body parts to satisfy some urge a child my have at 13 violent and the Dems do that every day.  I’m not advocating for this GOP candidate, just pointing out a different point of view about violence.

I remember being part of the wall in Charlottesville a few years ago while morons like you were swinging knives, clubs and AR 15s around.  The violent ones were the Baptists and Pentecostals that were walking hand in hand with the Nazis and other Fascists.

Was fun being slapped, spit upon, pushed, threatened with knives, clubs, and firearms because we stood in their way.

I feel pretty certain you would have joined in with them gleefully.

On 3/19/2024 at 4:14 PM, TigerOne said:

https://www.al.com/auburn/2024/03/what-auburns-hugh-freeze-hopes-to-learn-from-bruce-pearl-during-a-two-night-golf-trip.html
 

he better, the honeymoon, free ride, pitiful excuses, lack of coaching days are over.

Why?

On 3/6/2024 at 10:26 PM, Mikey said:

I don't care what they say or how flawed Trump is if he fixes the catastrophe at the border. And opens up American oil production. And doesn't embarrass this country like Biden did in Afghanistan and....the list is endless. Any thinking person who cares for America will not vote for Biden.

Well, that would leave you out as a thinking person.

Fact:  we pump more oil under Biden than we came close to with the Orange Dingus.

But if you were an actual thinking person you might have studied up and learned that rather than lie.

On 2/28/2024 at 12:45 PM, Son of A Tiger said:

Every time I see a thread like or similar to this I always remember that everyone who supports abortion is alive.

And I am reminded that everyone who is anti abortion does it from the faulty idea that it is anti scriptural while it is actually supported by Scripture. 

You make poor arguments

On 2/23/2024 at 3:23 PM, homersapien said:

Why Thomas?

Good grief.

What else would you expect this guy to say? He has no argument, no logic, just blatant stupidity.

And thinks the whole idea of politics is a piss people off that don't see his point of view.

26 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Don’t need to hang our heads very long. Great game other than final score.

WDE anyway!

Been feeling good about this team.

Feeling even better now

Just now, GwillMac6 said:

lol um no. You are letting the last couple of seasons cloud your memory. 

I don''t believe so.  Six of the nine have been not so great, and pretty inconsistent

2 minutes ago, WinForAuburn said:

Shooting was the key.. And I don't mean contested shots. If you can't as a d1 team make average shots you don't win. We sucked at shooting tonight.. It had nothing to do with KY defense we just sucked at shooting. Period. 

That is what is consistent about Pearl coached Auburn teams.  Bad shooting. Unless its a home game where they over perform. 

Unfortunately, they were probably what they really are tonight.

And like everything else he touches, it will fail.

Just funny to me how so many people, go gaga and will vote for a fella that has more bankruptcies than the average bear, and can't, or won't pay his bills.

On 2/11/2024 at 8:47 AM, I_M4_AU said:

Sounds like an ultimatum to pay up or suffer the consequences.  Ah, the art of the deal, I wouldn’t think you would understand.

THAT is the Orange Cheeto making up a lie on the go, knowing that a dingus like you won't be able to tell the difference.

This is why NIL is such horsecrap.

Paying athletes is the biggest joke.

12 hours ago, autigeremt said:

And yet they come to us when the #%^* hits the fan and they need an Avenger. 

No, they look to us because of what we started with NATO, Globalization (Which ain't as bad as people make it out to be), and how we intervene in their politics and markets. And boy, do we intervene.  It can look almost as bad as what we have done in Central and South America.

They look to us to be bigger than what we are, and we fail, miserably.

9 hours ago, Mikey said:

Thanks to NIL and the current transfer rules I've already lost a great deal of my interest in college sports. I suppose I'll always want Auburn to do well but my thoughts and money are already going elsewhere. What I'm giving to AU is completely on the academic side.

I can't believe I am agreeing with you Mikey.

Hell must have frozen over...;)

On 2/4/2024 at 5:18 PM, TexasTiger said:

Guaranteed!

And the average Alabamian will fall in line and give him everything he wants, because...

well that wouldn't be polite to say.

On 1/27/2024 at 10:26 PM, AURex said:

In Norway, but also other Scandinavian/European countries, the word "Texas" is used as a way of describing events (not people, just events). The term derives from their fascination and love with old Western movies.

The word is used as slang for wild, lawless, crazy, out of control. The most common phrase is "helt texas" as in "det var helt texas," which translates to, roughly, "that was totally/absolutely/completely bonkers."

I lived in Houston during the early 80s. Liked it well enough. But then is not now. As for now .........

I'm not Norwegian, but ..... Yep! Sounds about right! hahahaha

 

I am always intrigued by folks from US States that soil their pants on a daily basis, deciding to wax eloquently on European countries that are more advanced in practically every way.  

They view the US as a very lawless country, especially since we can't figure out how to handle the daily mass shootings, or how not to look at everything as a transaction that has to be won at all cost.

Then again, I just remind them to look at American Christianity, and you will understand why...